Virtuosos John Myung, John Petrucci, James LaBrie, Jordan Rudess and Mike Mangini, the Boston progressive metal titan Dream Theater, had their fourth Indonesian show in Surakarta in August 2022. Immediately after, the band set to perform its fifth show in May this year, which also happens to be the Asia leg’s last stop for the band’s once-delayed album tour, Top of the World Tour.

Awaken the Masters

The old masters of prog’s latest addition to their pantheon of opuses, A View From the Top of the World (2021), is a pedagogical album that equally speaks to its ever-expanding demographic fan base. A proper, befittingly-titled Dream Theater album that appeals to even hardliners and an excellent crash course for new listeners to the band’s complex, dizzying sonic wizardry.

While the album feels like a closing, or something nearing the perfecting end, in the band’s return to form since its polarizing 2016 studio album The Astonishing (an underrated one nevertheless), its experimentation side was never eschewed. A new, diverse classic that I can’t imagine the band not having fun writing amidst the pandemic.

“I think it’s a very powerful album for the band,” vocalist James LaBrie told The Jakarta Post on April 6.

He noted that there was a real sense of appreciation and gratitude when they went on to write the album. “Life’s fragile, don’t take it for granted. And the fact that we, as a band, were all healthy, and we all still had one another, in a musical sense, was incredible.”

LaBrie, guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung (LaBrie noted that Myung was the one who wrote the lyrics), however, agreed to steer clear of the pandemic as a subject matter in the album. 

“People would have been inundated with the pandemic situation and everything else that falls into place with that, so, what we said was ‘Let’s talk about things that [bring people] away from that, but it still resonates, and it’s still something that is truly meaningful to them,’” said LaBrie.

“It’s something that makes you think,” continued LaBrie. He was referring to the lyrics written for the songs in the album. “But at the same time, it’s not something that would be construed as melancholy or morbid. It’s something that is interesting.”

LaBrie particularly noted that in A View From the Top of the World they wanted the lyrics to “[open] another realm and another area of consciousness into the things that should matter and into the things that we should maybe think about and appreciate.”

Transcending Generations

The band clearly took their experimentation a notch higher after Distance Over Time (2019), where it received some criticism for playing it safe. They seemingly threw out whatever guidebook they had (metaphorically speaking, but the existence of one seems entirely plausible considering the band’s tendency to be detailed and intricate) that constitutes the band’s quintessence and started re-exploring what it is that makes Dream Theater contemporary.

“The only thing that will make us relevant is that our music seems relevant. If our music seems contemporary in the sense that it belongs in the now. [...] We want to always experiment, we always want to push the envelope,” said LaBrie. “We always want to be, to a certain degree and a large degree, unpredictable.”

Dream Theater’s music continues to speak to new generations of listeners. Its relevance seems to be quite long-lasting, even in this age of short attention spans. There’s a subreddit page dedicated to the band that is mainly run by Gen Zers, and some members are even from Gen Alpha.

“When we’re playing live, and I look out at our audience, they can be anywhere from 10 years old to 65 years old, or 70 years old,” LaBrie laughed. “So, the demographic is vast. It is extremely, extremely polarized in the sense of age.”

LaBrie took it as a seeping down phenomenon, in which new listeners may have been influenced by their older counterparts. “Maybe your older brother’s listening to [us], or your dad, or your mom, or your older sister.” He also noted that a lot of it has to do with word of mouth, during which he comically slid into a monologue of a person sitting around and was approached by another who talked about Dream Theater. 

“You’ve got something for everyone, you speak to everyone and everyone kind of gets it. They get it. I think the music is powerful. It doesn’t matter your ethnicity, age or creed. It doesn’t matter,” said LaBrie. “It’s just something that everyone feels. It’s universal. It’s very powerful.”

Absorbed in the moment

When asked about how 20-minute epics such as A View From the Top of the World and Octavarium can find their place in today’s world, LaBrie answered, “I think that it finds its place, because, I think, at some point, everyone realizes that ‘Hang on a second, it’d be nice to be able just to sit back and kind of lose myself’.”

“It’s something that I think, it really touches them profoundly, and it gives them that it’s almost like being rejuvenated or recharged because you’ve allowed yourself to really lose yourself on one thing,” he continued.

“[There are] so many things going on in our world today, and it’s instant gratification,” said LaBrie.

“But I think, for a band like Dream Theater, it’s almost like a date. ‘Hey, I’m going on a date’. I’m actually going to sit down here for the next half hour and listen to this song, this music. It’s like going out on a date. Take the time to put everything else to the side and you’re going to focus on this. And this only.”

LaBrie’s almost intimate and cherished take on music was partly influenced by his family. “I remember Dad sat me down and let me listen to Gene Krupa,” said LaBrie. “I remember him playing albums like Miles Davis and jazz stuff, and listening to Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole. I remember being very, very young, maybe 5 years old and I just really loved that.”

LaBrie started playing drums when he was five and started singing as he “always heard singers every time the radio was on,” he chuckled a bit as he recalled the moment. “My mom would go ‘Hey, you should keep doing that’, and then, in elementary school, I started singing.” 

Eventually, LaBrie was exposed to rock and heavy metal bands. “Led Zeppelin, Queen, Foreigner, Journey, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, it just kept going from there. [...] I remember seeing a video of Steven Tyler with Aerosmith and I go ‘That’s cool, man. I want to be [like] that’.”

When asked about how he perceives heavy metal in today’s music landscape, LaBrie said, “Heavy metal will always be relevant [...]. I can’t see heavy metal not being a force, not being an entity, not being something that will go on. If you lose heavy metal, then you might as well lose rock and roll, hard rock, pop rock. [...]. Heavy metal is an intense, powerful and beautiful form of music.”

Dream Theater will perform in Jakarta on May 12, 2023 at Ecopark Ancol for their last stop of their Top of the World Tour, organized by Rajawali Indonesia.

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